The global conference on climate convened in Paris at the end of what has turned out to be the world’s warmest November in recorded history.

Measurements by NASA show that temperatures across the planet were 1.05 degrees Celsius or 1.9 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the earth’s 1951 to 1980 average. It was the second consecutive month in which temperatures exceeded the previous average by at least one degree Celsius. The NASA figures were first reported Tuesday in The Washington Post.

The global readings came as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released its annual Arctic report card at an American Meteorological Society meeting in San Francisco.

“The Arctic is warming twice as fast as other parts of the planet, which has ramifications for global security, climate, commerce and trade,” Rick Spinrad, NOAA’s chief scientist, said in a statement.

The Japan Meteorological Society reported Monday the world’s warmest November on record. The record was fueled by the condition known as El Nino, which has warmed waters in the Pacific. The high reaches of the Arctic and the hot deserts of Australia saw temperatures far above normal, with higher-than-normal recordings in the eastern United States and across Western Europe.

Only a few corners of the globe — Mongolia, Baffin Island and the south tip of Greenland and part of the U.S. West Coast — were cooler than normal.

The extent of the warming is especially significant in view of the agreement by 196 countries in Paris, to keep increases in temperature “well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit temperature increase to 1.5 degree Celsius.”

The new climate figures come amids fierce partisan debate in the United States over climate change. Republicans in Congress have denounced the Obama administration for playing a lead role in negotiating the Paris climate accord. A Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, staged a Senate hearing last week with climate deniers.

“The scientific evidence doesn’t support global warming,” Cruz claimed on a National Public Radio interview. “For the last 18 years, the satellite data — we have satellites that measure the atmosphere — the satellites that actually measure the temperature showed no significant warming whatsoever.”

The Arctic Report Card by NOAA reports radically different findings.

Above 60 degrees latitude, it found, surface temperatures are 1.3 degrees Celsius or 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the long-term average measured between 1981 and 2010. Air temperatures were 2.9 degrees Celsuis, or 5.2 degrees Fahrenheit, higher than at the beginning of the 20th Century.

The winter ice pack in the Arctic is getting smaller and thinner, NOAA reported, and the melt season in 2015 began 15 days earlier than average.

“This year’s maximum extent not only occurred early, it is the lowest in the satellite record,” NOAA reported.